Tuesday, 28 October 2014

One of the interesting aspects of a foreign
trip is to examine how wildlife reserves are managed away from the UK.As well as a tour of Cape May sites, we spent
a couple of days visiting a dozen or more sites around Delaware Bay.So how does US management compare with UK
management?

Firstly, the area of protected land in the US
is remarkable, but it is a big country.There is not only an extensive system of Wildlife Refuges but also numerous
major wetland restoration schemes. The Estuary Enhancement Scheme around the
bay has aimed to restore functional tidal flow to marshes, resulting in huge areas of Cord-grass (Spartina) dominated saltmarsh. Since the
introduction of regular tidal flushing at the restored 243 ha Little Creek, the
saline mudflats within the impoundment have been heavily used by shorebirds
(especially Short-billed Dowitchers and sandpipers) in spring and autumn,
especially at high tide when the estuary mudflats are unavailable to them.The site has a monthly flooding regime during
passage periods before deeper flooding in winter. Grass shrimps are abundant and these and the
resident fish form the food base for waterfowl and wading birds. It is
also now more heavily used by Snow Geese (up to 300,000) feeding on the abundant
growth of Spartina. Not many of these restored sites seem to have
much ongoing management though, resulting in rapid vegetation growth and a
resultant loss of open habitat.

The Wildlife Refuges at
Bombay Hook and Forsythe have bunded fresh and brackish lagoons.These sites are so large (Bombay Hook is 6,500 ha) that the main access
is via a car route, with walking trails and viewing platforms around the site.
Maintaining the populations of migratory waterfowl is a major objective at the
refuges.The freshwater lagoons are
drained down in spring, providing muddy areas for waders. During the summer,
emergent plants grow across the lagoons, providing abundant food for waterbirds
when the lagoons are re-flooded in the autumn. This practice of Moist Soil
Management is widely used in the US.In
addition, 450 ha of the refuge are planted with crops such as winter wheat,
buckwheat and grass/clover leys specifically to provide food for waterbirds.
Some of these areas are flooded. We don’t do much of this in the UK.Most of these sites have high viewing
platforms. They provide good, high, long
distance viewing but rarely any close views of birds.

So how does the UK differ?Well our smaller nature reserves receive more
intensive management of the habitats (perhaps too much in some cases).Where we restore or create new sites, habitat
designs tend to maximise the value of a site, maybe again a reflection of the
smaller areas we have to work with.Our
reserves also tend to get people closer to the wildlife, either through site
design or the range of infrastructure provided. All of this can be seen in the design
and management of a reserve such as Minsmere.

Richard Crossley’s vision is to bring these
ideas together to create the best of both worlds.After looking at the pending restoration of
Pond Creek Marsh at Cape May, we met with Dave Golden, the Chief of the New
Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife for some excellent discussion on possible
designs.Perhaps we might see the Pond
Creek restoration take on a more UK site feel.Likewise, perhaps we’ll see some US ideas popping up on this side of the
pond.

Saturday, 11 October 2014

Arriving
at Cape May late into the evening, where we were staying with Richard and Deb
Crossley, we were quickly informed that weather conditions were ideal for a
‘morning flight’ and so we were out at Higbee’s at 5.00am, ticking Great Horned
Owl on the way.Dark shapes zipped
through the half-light, the bushes ‘tick’ed and ‘zitt’ed, and as light arrived
it was clear that many birds were on the move.Northern Flickers were everywhere, at least 200 passed over in the first
couple of hours.Cedar Waxwings,
American Robins and Bobolinks called from above and the bushes were alive with
warblers and vireos. A viewing platform in the corner of one of the fields
overlooks an area of scrub where the first sunlight arrives. A dozen or more
species of warbler were prominent this first morning, including Tennessee,
Nashville, Parula, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Blackpoll, Black-throated Blue,
Hooded, Prairie and Black and White.

The
‘morning flight’ at Cape May is an amazing migration spectacle.Morning flight is an after sunrise dispersal
of migrants, mainly birds re-orientating and moving northwards up the Delaware
Bay shoreline back from Cape May point. The fields and wooded areas at Higbee
Beach is one of the best places to observe this movement.Some counts have been staggering, not least
the 67,000 migrants counted on 13 October 2003, including 58,959 Yellow-rumped
Warblers, and the 1,516 Flickers that day somewhat eclipsed our 200. After the
morning flight, the custom is to move down to the hawkwatch platform near the
lighthouse or explore the Cape May ‘meadows’ or other less watched areas.At the hawkwatch platform, birds are called
and counted as they pass.That first
day, 500 American Kestrels passed through according to the tally board.

Over
the following days the spectacle of visible migration was always evident;
hundreds of Blue Jays endlessly flying through one day, thousands of Tree
Swallows clumped in a bush another.There were raptors galore every day with up to 50 birds of 8 species
circling above at peak periods, with Sharp-shined Hawks (or ‘Sharpies’ as they
like to say over there) continually visible overhead.

On
the quieter days, we did the ‘must-do’ trips up to Stone Harbor Point and
Nummy’s Island.Stone Harbor Point is a
long sand spit to the seaward side of extensive saltmarsh. At high tide waders
gather in numbers; numerous Western and Semi-p’s on the beach, Willet, Marbled
Godwit and Short-billed Dowitcher in the saltmarsh.Rails, herons and egrets lurk in the dense Spartina beds.Further north, Forsythe Wildlife Refuge (aka
Brigantine) is another location not to miss.Water levels were rather high on our visit but Seaside and Sharp-tailed
Sparrows were there to be ‘squeeked’ and ‘pished’ out of the grass and
scrub.If visible migration is your
thing, it is spectacular at Cape May.

A grizzled old ecologist/birder, usually to be found roaming around the Lee Valley and occasionally further afield. Fortunate to be involved in the management of some of the UK's finest nature reserves and always looking for ways of improving them for birds.